String of Newark shootings leaves one dead, three wounded in 24-hour span

Google MapsAn 18-year-old man was shot an killed on Blum Street Thursday night during a violent 24 hours in Newark that saw three other men wounded by gunfire.

NEWARK - Four men were shot, one fatally, during a 24-hour span that started Wednesday night in Newark, according to the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office and three law enforcement officials.

The explosion of gunfire left one man dead in the city’s Central Ward last night and three others in University Hospital suffering from bullet wounds, according to the officials. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the incidents.

The Newark Police Department did not respond to several requests for information about the shootings.

The homicide victim, 18, was shot at least once at 8:36 p.m. on Blum Street, said Katherine Carter, spokeswoman for the Prosecutor’s Office.

He was pronounced dead at University Hospital about an hour later, and his identity is withheld pending notification of his family.

The wave of gunfire started Wednesday night less than a tenth of a mile from the scene, when an unidentified man was struck by a bullet on the corner of Blum Street and Springfield Avenue, according to the officials.

The second shooting happened last night on Chapel Street near Raymond Boulevard in the city’s East Ward, according to the officials, and gunfire erupted again just hours later on Orchard Street, a few blocks from Newark Symphony Hall.

The incidents do not appear to be related, officials said. The names of the victims were not available.

As of Aug. 1, the number of reported shooting incidents in the city this year was 142, compared with 153 at same time last year, a decrease of less than 8 percent, according to city police statistics. The number of people struck by gunfire in the city had fallen from 195 to 182, a drop of less than 7 percent.

Prosecutor’s Office statistics show violence has been pervasive in the state’s largest city this month, with nine reported homicides already in August, compared with only seven through the entire month in 2009.